Charles Carter was a 19th century construction contractor from England who had a successful career in Wellington. Upon his death in 1896, his riches were gifted to the New Zealand Institute (now called Royal Society Te Apārangi) with the stipulation they build an observatory. This planetarium opened in 1941 near today’s Cable Car Museum. Originally purposed for astronomical research, it shifted focus to educating about space. In 2015, it was renamed the Space Place at Carter Observatory. The digital films, interactive telescope and exhibits explain the universe starting with the Big Bang nearly 14 billion years ago.
